World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016

Pray without ceasing…Becoming more infused with the nature and Spirit of God as we pray… Taking on the attributes of God as we become one with him beyond our earthly limits of time and space…

Lord as Jacob (Israel) struggled and demanded a blessing from his opponent at Peniel, may we persist and demand your gifts for all who suffer including ourselves. With broken hearts we uphold the terrified, traumatized children and people of Aleppo, Syria being bombed, starved, and deprived of food, medicine, and safety. We pray that our political leaders will find the backbone and determination to confront and stop the inhumanity of this internecine civil war.

Violence takes so many forms, whether trolling online, sexual harassment daily of women in Morocco; in fact, throughout your world even in schools in the UK and USA; the denigration of anyone who is different from what the abusers claim is ‘normal,’ when even a US Presidential candidate could boast of sexual assault on women. We pray for those too who are threatened and even killed because of their sexual orientation.

Loving God, your merciful love is wider and deeper than we can ever imagine. Free us to be channels of that love where we are.

We pray for the millions of silent marchers in Maharashtra, India over the past 6-weeks highlighting the need for equality of opportunity and an end to cronyism and corruption depriving the Dalits and Tribal people of justice and freedom.

We give thanks for the $5 a month health scheme in Kenya offering the chance of medical treatment formerly beyond most Kenyans.

We give thanks for those working to alleviate the suffering of millions from the hurricanes ravaging Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of the USA; the starvation and destitution and lack of medical care in so many countries from Venezuela, Yemen, Iraq and millions of refugees throughout the world. We pray for those children struggling to survive in refugee camps and avoid being sold into child marriage or sex trafficking. Let us cry out loud that the hundreds of children who could be reunited with relatives settled in countries like the UK can be moved quickly from the ‘jungle camp’ in Calais, France, before it is demolished at the end of the year.

Risen Lord Jesus, who came to your friends when all their hope was gone: come to us in the dark times. Come to those who despair, that they may feel your risen presence in their hearts.

Give light to those who sit in darkness. Cast down those who perpetrate violence and evil. Forgive our weakness and fear and help us remember you have given us a spirit of courage. Guide our way into the way of peace making and peace brokering.

Help us to live our faith, and express your love in our lives in all we do. AMEN.

Gratitudes

December 28, 2013

In October, Pope Francis formally gave permission for Roman Catholic masses in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to be celebrated in Tzotzil and Tzeltal, the two native languages that are the only languages spoken by 65% of the population […]